Communist Party of Italy

The Communist Party of Italy (PCd'I) was a communist political party in Italy that existed from 1921 to 1926. The party was founded at Livorno on 21 January 1921 following a split from the Italian Socialist Party at its 17th party congress, and the party was officially a section of the Comintern, adhering to Vladimir Lenin's views. The party had internal divisions, with the Leninist faction favoring internationalism and the autonomous faction favoring a party that was focused on the problems in Italy itself. Starting in 1923, several party members were arrested for conspiring against the state, and the left wing of the party was purged after Joseph Stalin forced all Comintern parties to adopt Stalinist views. In 1926, centrist party leaders Antonio Gramsci and Amadeo Bordiga were arrested, and the party would be forced to go into exile during Benito Mussolini and the National Fascist Party's reign. In 1943, the new Italian Communist Party was created in exile in the Soviet Union.